Bringing Integrity to Government

Smith will balance the political playing field so the government works for everyone, not just those who can pay to play. He supports overturning Citizens United, empowering small donors, and fighting lobbyist influence.

Fighting Big Money

Right now, our democracy is unfairly tilted in favor of those who can pay to play. Politicians are distracted from the voters because they are too concerned about offending their donors. How can we bring balance to our democracy and ensure everyone has an equal voice?

Overturn the Disastrous Citizens United

Doug will work with his fellow members of Congress to pass a Constitutional amendment to overturn the the disastrous Citizens United decision. By putting reasonable limits on contributions for each race and requiring disclosure of all contributions, we can stop shadowy SuperPACs and mega donors from dominating our political system.

Empowering Small Donors

Doug will go beyond just overturning Citizens United, and move to publicly financed elections so regular voters are the only special interest group.

The Small Donor Matching Funds

Doug supports Representative John Sarbanes’ Government By The People Act, which will provide matching funds for small-donor contributions. This will empower candidates who want to run clean campaigns with contributions from regular voters, and not just wealthy elites.

Tax-Refunds For Political Donations

Doug will also support refundable tax credits for every voter, as laid out in the American Anti-Corruption Act, to ensure that every who can vote will be able to help their preferred candidate run a viable campaign. This will free candidates to fight for the issues that matter to the vast majority, and not just those who can offer the fattest checks.

Protect Voting Rights

Voting is the the right that makes America America, and Doug will defend and promote voting by every means possible.

Restore the Voting Rights Act

Doug will fight to restore the VRA and combat every effort to disenfranchise vulnerable Americans. As Republicans across the country try to win elections by restricting who can and cannot vote, Doug will fight to ensure every politician must compete for every vote. If those politicians do not want to compete fairly, they can get another job.

ADA-Compliant Polling Places

Doug will ensure all polling sites are ADA compliant and work to improve accessibility according to the needs of the disabled community, whether that means increasing mobile voting stations or encouraging more vote-by-mail. With a growing population of disabled voters, it is more important than ever to ensure compliance with the ADA.

End Gerrymandering

Voters should choose their Representatives, but gerrymandering allows Representatives to choose their voters.

Doug supports a federal ban on gerrymandering, modeled on the Ranked Choice Voting Act. Ending gerrymandering will expand the choices voters have and ensure their voices are truly heard.

Defend Election Integrity

Every American should have absolute confidence that every vote cast is counted.

Working Voting Machines

Doug will support a permanent federal fund for voting machine maintenance to ensure that all communities - rich and poor - can be confident their voting machines work and will count their vote.

Open-Source E-Voting

Doug understands that we can only guarantee the integrity of our electronic voting systems if their code is fully available to the public. That means we must end the use of proprietary code and move fully to open-source programming in our voting machines.

Verifiable Voting Systems

Doug believes every voter should be able to independently verify that their vote was cast and cast correctly. Receipts are one option to explore for achieving a system that inspires confidence in all voters.

Fight Lobbyist Influence

Our laws should written in light of the best available evidence, not who can buy the most access.

Slowing the Revolving Door

Senator Tammy Baldwin & Representative Elijah Cummings Financial Services Conflict of Interests Act will slow the ‘revolving door’ problem of government officials going into lobbying and vice versa. It extends the period government officials must wait before taking lobbying jobs, prohibits lobbyists from earning bonuses based on their experience in government, expand the definition of lobbyist contact, and forces government officials to recuse themselves from decisions impacting former employers. Taken together, these reforms make it harder for government officials to sell their experience and access on the private market.

Replacing Lobbyists with Objective Experts

Scholars from both parties agree: lobbyists have much more influence in writing our laws than they should because Congress has not invested in its own capacity to research policy. Doug will restore the Office of Technology, invest in training Congressional researchers, and make additional investments to ensure Congress is not reliant on profit-seeking lobbyists for information.

Explicit Whistleblower Protections

Doug will fight for clear protections for government employees and journalists who uncover corruption - be that unconstitutional overreach or embezzlement of public funds. No one should fear retaliation for speaking out for the American people.